Trackstick II & Google Earth: Plot Your Travels Precisely, Follow Your Ex Surreptitiously

by Willy Volk on

Designed specifically for integration with Google Earth, Trackstick II is a GPS device that lets you “keep a satellite scrapbook of all your travels and record your explorations.” With Trackstick II, anglers can mark bountiful catch-spots. Campers can remember how to reach hidden gems. Globe-trekkers can let friends and family follow them as they wander through, for example, Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Um, on second thought…

Powered by 2 AAA batteries, the unit’s 1Mb flash memory can log months of travel histories. Later, Trackstick II’s data can be downloaded to your (Windows-only) computer via USB and viewed on Google Earth’s 3D model of the planet.

Google Earth Store sells the units for $169. However, if you’re creepy, you might want to think about upgrading to the Super Trackstick. With its magnetic mount, you can surreptitiously attach it to that hot barrista’s Vespa and find out what she does when she’s not making your foam froth.

Planning a Trip Using Google Books

by Willy Volk on

Google Book Search has begun to animate the information found in books by organizing the locations mentioned in them on Google Maps. Complemented by snippets of text from the book, Book Search links to the actual pages where the locations are mentioned. For example, in David Foster Wallace’s excellent Girl With Curious Hair you can see that he seems to have fondness for the South and the East coast. Obviously, if you wanted to arrange a road trip to coincide with a favorite book, this would be an excellent way to do it. Travel tip: consider Around the World in 80 Days.

Matthew Gray is a software engineer for Google, and he recently developed a nifty little mash-up, showing the Earth viewed from books, where individual mentions of locations in books combine to yield an interpretation of the globe. The intensity of each pixel is proportional to the number of times the location at a given set of coordinates is mentioned across all the books in Book Search. If you wanted to plan a trip off the beaten path — or, in this case, off the typed word — just check out the map below. The lighter the map, the fewer words have been written about the place.

[Via GoogleMapsMania and The Map Room]

Faster Maps Through Technology

by Dave Luna on

The great duo of Lewis and Clark trekked across unexplored territory without the aid of GPS, satellite radio, and No Doz. Suckers, indeed! Thankfully, it’s the 21st century, and your roadtrips can be just as productive with less effort.

These days, the savvy traveler doesn’t need to track his movements across these great United States in a leather-bound journal. All one needs is a GPS receiver capable of logging waypoints. Simply set the receiver to record, toss it onto a dash or onto a pack, and get moving. Once you’ve arrived at your destination, download the GPS data onto a computer and feed it into the free, web-based GPS Visualizer. GPS Visualizer analyzes this data and creates a map as a JPEG, Google Map, or a Google Earth file.

It really can’t get much simpler to chronicle your travels, and with all of that extra time you’ve saved, you can think about how you just one-upped two of history’s greats.